A documentary by Ava DuVemay about how mass incarceration has replaced slavery as the way to keep the black population down. The prison population is six times more likely to be black than the non-prison population. Sentences are harsher if you're a person of color. Minority communities are subject to harsher police actions and more enforcement actions. Crack cocaine was prosecuted much more harshly than the more expensive powdered cocaine. Many industries rely on prison populations, from the private prison companies to companies that use unpaid inmate workers. Mandatory sentences and minimum jail time and three strikes ensure that we have 2.5 million people in jail now, largely for non-violent drug crimes, when only a decade ago it was half that, and a decade before that, a quarter. The US has 5% of the world's population but 25% of its inmates.
The 13th amendment outlawed slavery, but convicted felons cannot vote, cannot buy firearms, cannot get most jobs, can be denied housing, have almost no civil rights. Even after serving your time, for what is often a non-violent drug offense, felons must serve a lifetime of second-class citizenry.
And disproportionally those felons are black.
And disproportionally unarmed black men are killed by militarized police forces who are supported by the very corporations that profit from this racial divide.
Donald Trump says "Make America great again." He says "In the olden days justice was swifter, and these troublemakers would have been dealt with."
A very troubling documentary.
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